Your Daily Phil: Colel Chabad gets $5M for new Jerusalem center
Good Friday morning.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: U.S.-born Israeli teen wounded in terror attack cheers on baseball teammates as they finish 3rd in European championship; The Israeli minister at the forefront of international right-wing populism; New nonpartisan report slams WaPo’s Middle East coverage as unprofessional; Brad Lander’s looming NYC mayoral candidacy raises concerns in Jewish community. Print the latest edition here.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on how the Ohr Torah Stone education network has increased its mental health support following the Oct. 7 attacks and on a program teaching USC athletes to combat antisemitism. We feature an opinion piece by Rachel Hollander Sirner about navigating the desire to protect our children and their desire for information about the ongoing hostage situation. Also in this newsletter: Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, Shari Aronson and Jon Levin. We’ll start with a $5 million donation to the Colel Chabad food security nonprofit to establish a new community center in central Jerusalem.
A 10-story community center is slated to be built in the center of Jerusalem by Colel Chabad, an Israeli food security nonprofit affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, following a $5 million donation from philanthropists Debbie and Michael Flacks, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen has learned.
Called the Flacks Chessed Tower, the center — which will house a senior center, art studio, soup kitchen and synagogue — is set to be erected next to the Machane Yehudah shuk, or open air market, according to the organization.
Michael Flacks is the founder and head of the Flacks Group, a Miami-based private equity firm that specializes in acquiring underperforming businesses, according to its website. Along with his wife, Debbie, the couple has supported several Colel Chabad projects over the years, including its programs for nutrition support and orphans. Among their charitable gifts is the Flacks Supermarket, one of Israel’s biggest nonprofit grocery stores, which opened in 2005 in the predominantly Haredi Beitar-Illit settlement in the central West Bank.
The Chesed Tower “marks a new phase” for the Flacks’ support of Colel Chabad, Michael Flacks said in a statement. “It will not only physically sustain, but will also nurture the spirits of the entire community,” he said.
Rabbi Zalman Duchman, development director of Colel Chabad, said the center will be “a hub for inclusion, education and acts of kindness, ushering in a new era of hospitality and communal activism for Colel Chabad.”
Duchman said that the center comes as a response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. He referenced an often quoted teaching of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, which said that “a little light counteracts much darkness.”
STUDY AID
Modern Orthodox education network boosts mental health as students, staff experience loss post-Oct. 7
Along with studying Jewish texts and secular subjects, students at Ohr Torah Stone, the Modern Orthodox educational network, will be continuing their crash course in handling grief when they return for the new school year next month. The institution has lost at least 13 alumni in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as 31 family members of students and faculty, reports Efrat Lachter for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Challenge and opportunity: The profound sense of loss experienced by the Ohr Torah community has spurred its president and rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, to put a new focus on students’ mental health, including through art and music therapy courses, and group therapy sessions for both students and faculty. “You can’t educate students when their hearts are broken. But when their hearts are broken, and you are sensitive to it, sometimes you can engage them in ways that you couldn’t before,” Brander told eJP.
Treatment options: Currently, over 130 students and 20 faculty members are receiving individual mental health support. Additionally, Ohr Torah Stone offers group therapy sessions for both students and faculty. The therapeutic interventions include art therapy and music therapy, allowing participants to process their grief and trauma constructively.
Support system: Ohr Torah Stone has already spent roughly $600,000 on its mental health initiatives, but in light of recent additional requests, the organization predicts that the total will be closer to $750,000 as the school year opens next month. Among the donors to these programs are the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, David Eisner, Maimonides Fund, the M D Katz Foundation, Jeff and Jodi Harris, the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, Judi Stern, the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach, Micah Philanthropies, Morry and Judy Weiss and the Walder Foundation.
ALLIES IN TRAINING
USC athletes get crash course on antisemitism on trip to Poland
Until last month, University of Southern California cornerback Prophet Brown had never left the country. He didn’t even have a passport. The Sacramento native, whose father is from Panama, certainly did not anticipate his first international trip being to Poland — let alone Auschwitz. Brown traveled to Eastern Europe in July as part of the USC Student Leadership Summit, a program, run by the Shoah Foundation, that brings athletes from the sports powerhouse to Washington, D.C., and then Poland to learn about Judaism, antisemitism and the Holocaust, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
Speakers series: Twenty athletes from USC’s football, track and field, women’s soccer and women’s beach volleyball teams took part in the summit. In Washington, they visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and they heard from speakers including Holocaust survivor Irene Weiss and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. (Lipstadt won the crowd over when she booed along with them after describing a stint early in her career spent at the University of California Los Angeles, USC’s biggest rival.) For most of the students, it was their first time thinking in-depth about antisemitism, and why they should act to call it out.
Tricky backdrop: The students all sought out the program on their own after hearing about it from teammates or coaches who traveled to Poland in its first iteration in 2023. They came in with an open mind, despite the early meetings of the program taking place against the backdrop of campus protests about the war in Gaza. “It shows that the protests that we saw, the vitriol that was coming from students and way too many faculty across the country, really was a minority phenomenon,” said Robert Williams, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation, which was founded by Steven Spielberg 30 years ago to preserve survivors’ testimony. “Most kids, they’re either apathetic or they want to know more, and everybody who participated in this program definitely wanted to know more.”
Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.
CONVERSATIONS AT HOME
The world forgot our hostages, but my 4-year-old has not
“Every night for the past 300 days, I am grateful that my 2- and 4-year-old sons have gone to sleep safely in our home,” writes Rachel Hollander Sirner, senior director of IACT at Hillel International, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.
A parental instinct: “Although my husband Ari and I err on the side of honesty with our inquisitive 4-year-old Rafi, we decided to shield him from the horrors Hamas inflicted on Oct. 7 and every day since. Early that first dark morning, when he said, ‘Mommy, why are you crying?’ I lied and said I stubbed my toe. Ari and I were completely delusional, because it didn’t take long for Rafi to ask questions we were woefully unprepared for… What we forgot is that Rafi leaves us every day for preschool or camp, experiencing a world that we are not able to curate for him. We did not consider that Rafi had tons of questions and was ready to burst.”
The decision to be honest: “On day 137, Rafi asked why there was a baby picture on a highchair at his preschool. How was I supposed to explain the plight of Kfir Bibas to him?… Ari and I took on a new approach inspired by Sivan Zakai, who writes: ‘[R]esearch confirms that talking to kids about difficult current events — things that are happening in the world that are confusing or troubling or disturbing — doesn’t traumatize them. It makes them more equipped to deal with a world in which that is happening. Our gut reaction is to wrap our children in bubble wrap, so they never encounter any harm, but it does more harm than good.’”
Worthy Reads
They Could Have Been My Kids: In The Times of Israel, Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll writes about her experience visiting the community of Majdal Shams this week. “The men and women separated, waiting on lines to comfort the mourners. The bleachers of the stadium-like hall were packed. Large pictures of each murdered child sat on chairs. Each child’s mother sat directly behind the poster of her child. It was crushing. Devastating. And it seemed that the oxygen had been sucked from the room. Tears streaming, bereft of words, we offered gestures, sentiments, and the anguish in our hearts for the few seconds we had with each mother before the line pushed us forward. They responded, some crying, others in shock, some simply numb. They thanked us for coming and being with them. Most of the people in the room were Druze, but there were other Jewish Israelis, and some Muslims as well, who had come to grieve with the community. We climbed the rows to sit in seats and just be with them in their time of pain.” [TOI]
A Summer Like No Other: In The Conversation, Jonathan Krasner explores the history and evolution of Jewish summer camps, including the emerging role they are playing today. “This summer, the emotional baggage of the past 10 months has accompanied youngsters and staff to camp just as surely as their trunks and duffel bags. Some, especially those who have felt isolated in their schools and neighborhoods, may be eager to process events with camp friends and trusted elders. Jewish camps in parts of the South and lower Midwest, in particular, frequently attract campers from tiny Jewish communities who have few if any other Jewish peers and may crave an opportunity to share their feelings. Others undoubtedly welcome the refuge that camp offers and are depending on staff to preserve the bubble… As with the COVID-19 crisis, camps have mostly been improvising their way through this summer’s challenges. But when the season ends, I believe camps will need to reflect and reassess their approaches. They would do well to consult experts who have studied how Jewish children and teens make sense of Israel and the conflict. They may also want to reassess the long-term efficacy of ‘feel-good’ Israel programming that obscures or oversimplifies the conflict. As Surprise Lake demonstrates, however, camps have proven their ability to adapt in the past without sacrificing their missions.” [TheConversation]
Mastering the Meme: Memes aren’t just an outreach and engagement tool for politicians, writes Michael Bellavia in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. “They have the potential to bring needed attention to a host of social issues nonprofits care about. When done well, the shareable and democratized nature of memes can raise up often unheard voices and spread messages that spur action… Importantly, memes are a potent vehicle for reaching younger audiences, especially Gen Z, who are deeply invested in social issues such as climate change and income inequality and get the majority of their information on social media… Anyone with an internet connection and a low-level command of language can create and distribute a meme. This has many advantages for building broad-based social movements. But it also means that nonprofits and social movement leaders can never fully control the message. While that may seem risky, keep in mind that every successful movement comprises a wide array of folks — agitators, quiet supporters, peaceful protesters, provocative agents of mischief, small and large donors, and those directly affected by the problem at hand. Developing a meme mind-set requires accepting the potential value of all those voices. Here are a few meme best practices almost any nonprofit can adopt.” [ChroncileofPhilanthropy]
Around the Web
Inbar Lanir and Peter Paltchik won silver and bronze medals, respectively, in judo yesterday at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the country’s first medals of the games. Israeli judoka Raz Hershko will compete in the semifinal of the women’s over-78kg weight class later today, giving her a shot at a medal…
Philanthropist Shari Aronson was recently elected chair of the board of trustees of the Jewish Museum, located in New York City. Aronson’s predecessor, Robert A. Pruzan, will remain a trustee, a role he has held since 2003, and Sander Levy and David Shapiro will serve as board co-presidents. The museum also appointed two new trustees: private investor Marc Abramowitz, and philanthropist and publisher Cassie Arison…
Canadian Friends of the Shalom Hartman Institute will now be known as the Shalom Hartman Institute of Canada…
The newly named offshoot of the Shalom Hartman Institute is launching a “Courageous Leadership Canada Initiative”…
The Anti-Defamation League has been working with the social network Reddit to address antisemitism on the platform…
Dale Marcus, Dana Waxler and Deborah Wiskind were elected to the executive committee of the national board of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America; they will begin their three-year term on Jan. 1, succeeding Peg Elefant, Valerie Lowenstein and Jill Sapperstein…
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has created a new youth engagement program, Young Adults, Leaders, and Alumni (YALA), in a bid to bring in young people who are unlikely to join a synagogue but are still looking for a Conservative community…
Economist Jon Levin officially assumed his new post as president of Stanford University yesterday…
Evelyn Lipmann, an Austrian-born Holocaust survivor who moved to the United Kingdom and became a noted advocate for the British Holocaust Educational Trust and the Association of Jewish Refugees, died recently at 100…
Selma Weintraub, the former international president of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, died last Wednesday at 102…
Pic of the Day
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia for over a year on charges of espionage, which were overwhelmingly seen as spurious, is welcomed by his mother at the airport in Prince George’s County, Md., upon his return to the U.S. on Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange.
Jewish groups who advocated for his release hailed his return. “Jewish Federations of North America are overjoyed and relieved at the news of Evan Gershkovich’s release, along with the release of Paul Whelan and other political prisoners,” the organization said in a statement.
Birthdays
Chief growth officer at the National Council of Jewish Women, Amy Aronoff Blumkin…
FRIDAY: Co-founder and chairman of NYC-based real estate development firm, Rockrose Development Corporation, Henry Elghanayan… Professor emeritus of Bible at London’s Leo Baeck College, Jonathan David Magonet… Former member of Knesset for 28 years, he then served as chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems until 2023, Uzi Landau… Retired colonel in the U.S. Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor and seven other medals, he serves as a military analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, Jack H. Jacobs… Longtime librarian, now residing in Albuquerque, N.M., Irene Seff… Nationally syndicated radio talk show host, author and public speaker, Dennis Prager… Ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations, Robert Keith Rae… Author and former columnist at The New York Times, Roger Cohen… U.S. Senator from Nevada, Jacklyn Sheryl “Jacky” Rosen… Psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and brain researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yoram Yovell… Mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., for eight years until 2022, now of counsel at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, Richard David “Rick” Kriseman… Owner of Newton, Mass.-based MPG Promotions, Elliot Mael… VP and general counsel of Yeshiva University, Andrew J. ”Avi” Lauer… Professional tennis player, who was once ranked No. 6 in the world, now the director of tennis at St. Andrews country club in Boca Raton, Aaron Krickstein… Former member of the Knesset, first for the Labor party and then the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Leon Litinetsky… Senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven A. Cook… Executive vice president for Hearst Television and chair of the NBC Television Affiliate Board, Eric J. Meyrowitz… Senior director for global trade and public affairs at Mars Inc., Jay Eizenstat… Pulitzer Prize-winning, D.C.-based national security reporter for The New York Times, Matthew Rosenberg… Senior executive communications lead at Adobe, Stephen L. Rabin… Labor law attorney in the Nashville office of Holland & Knight, he served on the national board of JFNA, Aron Zwi Karabel… CEO of Make It Real, co-founder and chair of The Jewish Entrepreneur (a mentoring program), Isaac William “Zevy” Wolman… U.S. senator (R-OH), he is the Republican candidate for vice president, James David (J.D.) Vance… Julia Nayfeld Schulman… Actress, Hallie Kate Eisenberg… Baseball pitcher, he played for Team Israel in 2017 and now manages a baseball training facility for young players in Philadelphia, Kenny Koplove… Co-founder/CEO of startup Petra Power, Aaron Goodman, PhD… British media personality, model and social media influencer, Eyal Adi Booker…
SATURDAY: Retired head coach of both the NFL’s KC Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Marv Levy… English actor, author, playwright and theater director, known for his roles as the villain in both “James Bond” and “Rambo” films, Steven Berkoff… Executive vice president emeritus of the UJA-Federation of New York, John S. Ruskay… Retired regional director in the Cleveland office of the ADL, she serves on the board of trustees of the Cleveland Federation, Anita Gray… Former chairman and CEO of the NYC office of commercial real estate brokerage firm Savills, Mitchell S. Steir… Voice actor in dozens of Disney films, video games and television programs, known professionally as Corey Burton, Corey Gregg Weinberg… Chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and board member of JFNA, Orna Amir Wolens… President of D.C.-based Freedman Consulting, LLC, Thomas Z. Freedman… CEO and co-founder of Pushkin Industries, Jacob Weisberg… Israeli filmmaker, producer and director, Ilan Moskovitch… Canadian entrepreneur and former commodities trader, Alexander Shnaider… Executive director of public affairs at the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Fla., Evan Goldman… Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, Suzy Shuster… Managing editor of Vital City, Josh Greenman… U.S. senator (D-CT), Chris Murphy… Chief advancement officer at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Joshua Cherwin… Head of public policy at Riot Platforms, Brian Morgenstern… Senior editor of Commentary magazine, Seth A. Mandel… Partner at SoftBank Group International, Jeffrey A. Dressler… Senior director of philanthropic engagement for the southern division of the Anti-Defamation League, Erica Greenblatt… Tel Aviv-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Caroline “Carrie” Keller-Lynn… Director of member engagement at Christians United For Israel, she was born in Lutsk, Ukraine, and raised in Sacramento, Calif., Liliya Maskovcevs… Executive director of The Natan Fund, Adina Poupko… Executive director of the Reducetarian Foundation, Brian Kateman… Fashion model, Karlie Kloss… U.S. newsletter editor at the Financial Times, Emily Goldberg… First round pick of MLB’s Atlanta Braves in the 2020 draft, he made his MLB debut in 2023, now in the Chicago White Sox organization, Jared Shuster… Ariana Kaufman… Leigh Bonner Levine…
SUNDAY: Professor emerita of American history at Yeshiva University and Stern College, she is an expert on the history of McCarthyism, Dr. Ellen Wolf Schrecker… Talmudic scholar and a leader of New York’s Sephardic Jewish community, Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Haim… President at Salco Mechanical, Michael Salzberg… Immediate past board chair of the Jewish Funders Network, Marcia Riklis… SVP and chief growth officer at the NYC HQ of the Anti-Defamation League, Frederic Lewis Bloch… Former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger… Retired professor in Memphis, Sheldon Dan… Longtime member of the Knesset for Likud including multiple ministerial positions, Silvan Shalom… Executive producer of “Live with Kelly and Mark,” Michael Gelman… 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama… Mayor of Chicago until 2023, Lori Lightfoot… Attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison… Administrative manager at Edelman, Helen Lapkovsky… Global editorial director for PwC and editor-in-chief of PwC’s management magazine “strategy+business,” Daniel Gross… Editor-in-chief of Cuepoint at Medium, he is known as Shecky Green, Jonathan Miles Shecter… U.S. representative (D-NY), he is the minority leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffries… Chief political correspondent and host of “Special Report” on Fox News, Bret Baier… Broadcast meteorologist at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., Steven Rudin… Washington director of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block… Director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay… Columnist and senior editor at Politico, Michael Schaffer… Candidate in this week’s Democratic primary in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District and former White House speechwriter, Andrei Cherny… Director of brand and communications at Securonix, Caren Beth Auchman… CEO of Something Major, a leadership coaching and advisory firm, Randi Braun… Assistant director in the geostrategic business group at EY-Parthenon, Ben-Ari Boukai… Chief revenue officer and co-founder at Riverside FM, Jonathan Keyson… Childhood student at the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, he is a placekicker for the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, Greg Joseph… Natalie Roberts… Evelyn Murphy…
